As the storm clouds gathered over Beacon Hills much of the pack was settling into their homes. Álmos, Derek, Cora, and Stiles were all gathered in the rather cozy space of the loft, Stiles' mother flitting about casting her soothing glow about the area. But she seemed particularly agitated by the weather that was coming, even as the first, cold, heavy drops of rain came pouring down onto the roof and skylight above them.

"Hey mom, is everything alright?" Stiles asked, sensing her unease almost as much as he was seeing it, she had an all too familiar look on her face, it was the same one he often had when something didn't seem right.

"This storm...I don't particularly care for it, something feels wrong." she added, her form flickering like a candle in the wind. "I'm afraid I may need to hold back some tonight, I'm sorry son, but if this is what I think it is, then I'm going to need to draw myself a bit more thin, I know Alan and Marin will be doing the same to shield the town, we'll discuss more tomorrow darling." she added before vanishing from sight, peeling off into the air, the warm glow of that same orb Stiles had seen days before taking off.

Vivian had elected to stick around however, choosing to school Stiles in every aspect of the void that she was privy to as the monarch of the Summer Court, something that made a little too much sense to him now given the story she'd had them read in their English class. As it turned out, Shakespeare had actually been inspired by her to write the role of Titania, apparently she'd been a terrible flirt in her youth. The evening passed as best as could be hoped, and in time all of those gathered turned in for sleep, for those that did sleep. Vivian however did leave after a while, needing to return to her own domain for the moment to fill in her people as to the plans that were being devised, swearing them all to the utmost silence.

It was in the absence that the storm got darker, no thunder, no lightning, just gloom, wind, and rain, a heavy barrage of rainfall that drowned out a great deal of any sound beyond the loft. Something that was a blessing most of the time, but tonight...it was something to worry about.

As Stiles and Derek lay peacefully in bed, a shadow was moving in the loft, the candles that remained lit were snuffed out as it passed by them, a rather confident gait to the figure's movements. It ascended the staircase, and though more than capable of simply floating away and drifting up, it was taking its time. By the time the figure was in Derek's room, there was little, time to react.

"Derek, sweetheart, why don't you open up those adorable puppy eyes of yours and give me a big ol' kiss." the rather seductive, yet undeniably sadistic voice of Kate Argent hissed out, barely audible over the sound of the rain as she moved to hover over Derek's body, slowly beginning to lower down toward him, that was until a fair-skinned, delicate looking hand shot out from under the blankets and cast her form flying up toward the ceiling.

"You stay the fuck away from my boyfriend." Stiles shouted, alerting everyone else in the dwelling, Cora bursting through, seeing Kate hovering up near a corner of the room, Álmos tore in shortly after, Stiles figuring he nearly vaulted up there.

"Oh, sweetie, he was mine first." Kate said as she slowly drifted down to the ground, standing confidently in front of the would-be druid and the three werewolves. "Well this hardly seems fair, I'm already dead. What are you going to do?" she asked as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"For one, I could send you barreling back to the depths of hell." Álmos said, lightning crackling around his hand.

"You'd think that, wouldn't you. But I was a hunter, if you think a little lightning is enough to spook me, then you've got the wrong girl." she stated before drawing her hand back, a dark sphere coalescing in her palm as she held it casually. It almost seemed to sap the light from the room, it caused tremors in the werewolves, but was only causing Stiles to grow more irate.

"I don't care what he was to you, you're dead, any claim you might have went with you, and frankly, he's too good for you." Stiles said as he rose from the bed, not even seeing as his own eyes began to flash dangerously, something strange as it hadn't happened before, but even as they did lightning flashed outside, thunder following it, casting a glaring streak of light across the room, between Kate and the pack.

Kate faltered a moment, eyes fixing on the teen a moment before she rolled her eyes. "Of course, you're a druid." she added before chucking the sphere in her hand directly at him, what she hadn't expected however was what followed.

As the sphere sped in Stiles' direction he didn't even respond to it, it splashed against him, wrapping around, weaving a path around his torso, almost as though it had formed a current of sorts. It kept moving, weaving around like vines before bursting back toward the spirit before him, wreathed in the same arcs of energy that Álmos often had around him. It tore into her, dragging her to the ground as she wailed.

"So, István taught you quite the new trick, didn't he?" he said as the lightning crackling in his own hand began to arc with the Romani wolf's own, forming a web before them, cutting off any clear line that Kate might have had to them. "Guess it's a very good thing that I learned a trick of my own from the Summer Court tonight, how to direct void energy away from me." he added as he took a step down from the bed that he'd found himself standing on.

This entire time Derek had been sitting there, frozen in absolute horror as Kate stood there, having heard her, having almost felt her weight bearing down on him. It was in that last thought that he knew they weren't dealing with some typical strigoi, they were dealing with a legitimate demon in this case. "Stiles, be careful, she isn't..." Derek began before Stiles nodded his head.

"You think I can't identify a succubus when I see one Derek?" he asked over his shoulder as Kate took the momentary break in his focus to charge the teen. "Oh give me a break." he added as he and Al lashed out with their arcs of energy like flails, lashing her and casting her backward again. "Did I or did I not tell you to stay the fuck away?" he asked as he gave a particularly spectacular middle finger with his left hand as Kate stumbled back onto her feet.

"You're not just a druid, are you?" she asked as she drew more void energy into her grasp, shaping it, the tendrils of vile, and sickening matter forming what he could only describe as pistols. "You're a High Priest." she added as she took aim at Stiles again. "How quickly can you react to void energy I wonder?" she asked.

"I don't know Kate, how fast can you?" he asked as he stood with both hands spread wide, he alone handling the energy barricade now protecting the pack in the room as Al extended his hands, eyes flaring red as the 'pistols' in Kate's hands became deformed, curling back toward her like serpents, latching onto her arms and biting into the part spectral, part physical form of her, causing her to shriek in pain. "See, while you were busy being a bitch, Al here was warping your weapons." he added smugly. "The living have more sway here than the dead." he concluded before his barricade began to fade away. "Now, I have the following to say, Menj a pokolba." he said, Al looking over with an amused look on his face. "What, I'm a quick learner." he concluded as he extended his hands in the direction of the demon before them. "Ite ad infernum, daemonium." Stiles added, his voice reverberating in the room, the ground shuddering as thunder peeled overhead, from his hands extended what almost appeared to be flaming chains, wrapping tight around the figure of Kate Argent, searing whatever it was that counted as flesh on her being as they continued to seal around her a hole opening up below as the sheer weight of what he was using to bind her dragged her down, her screams growing louder until the portal sealed shut as the last of her sank below it. Stiles stood there, looking furious looking like he was half tempted to rip that portal back open to drag her out just to repeat the process until he was satisfied she'd never come back. However, there was something stronger that was tugging him away from that, and he quickly shifted around to look at the wrecked expression on Derek's face, he'd literally just seen the cause for the worst of his pain dragged into hell, seen Kate Argent, a succubus, raised by István no less, get thrashed by his mate, and sent packing to the depths of hell. He was still petrified, still had no idea how to process any of what he'd just seen, and that is what worried him the most.

"She...she was going to..." Derek began, feeling absolutely filthy, he'd felt just how close she was to touching him, knowing exactly how, and where she was planning to. His claws we out, and he was nearly about to claw at his own chest and abdomen, and likely would have if Stiles hadn't moved over to him. The thunderstorm now brewing outside was enough to put Al at ease, it was something he could use, connecting to it to clear out the immediate area of any other threats. Stiles however was fixated on his mate.

"She didn't though, she tried, and she failed." Stiles said as he pulled Derek's hands away from any chance of causing harm, the claws still out, still a danger, but one he was willing to face.

"But I was..." he said looking down at his groin, "I wanted to..." he said in utter disgust with himself, his arms tensed, wanting to pull his hands to himself again, wanting to rend himself apart.

"Derek, look at me." Stiles said, his tone almost commanding, like an alpha demanding his beta comply, just like how Derek had saved him from Isaac that night in the station. Derek's eyes snapped to Stiles' own, his the tortured blue of his shifted form staring into the constant and reliable brown he had been staring into for the last couple years. "Yes, she got under your skin, almost literally, that what succubi do, they arouse, they seduce, they take without permission, and they enthrall." Stiles said as he looked hard into his mate's eyes. "There is nothing you did that wasn't completely beyond your ability to stop. She was doing exactly the same as she did in life, she knows all of your weaknesses, and she thought she'd be able to use every last one of them against you. What she didn't see coming was the fact that she had to deal with me first. The last thing I will ever let happen, is let that psychotic bitch come anywhere near you, ever again. I don't care if I have to send her back to hell a million times, I will never let Kate Argent hurt you, or let you hurt yourself over her, ever, do you understand me?" he said still holding Derek's hands far from him. "Right now, this?" he said holding Derek's hands up to him, showing him the claws he was close to using to tear into himself with, "This is just another trick in her book, make you feel like filth, make you hurt yourself, kill yourself, you do that, she'd be able to drag you down with her. Please tell me you'd never let that happen. I need you to tell me you'd never let her drag you down with her." he added, Derek's eyes still holding that broken look to them, arms still straining. By some miracle Stiles was holding back the strength of a full blown werewolf, and there was no sign of him letting up anytime soon, not until he was certainly Derek would be safe.

Derek couldn't tell what was going on inside his own head, the voice he'd heard had dredged up all the times he'd been with Kate, the times he'd felt at his best, his most confident, she'd brought that back to him, but it was wrong, it was all wrong. He wanted to bleed out all his memories of her, wanted to get every last part of her out of him, make it so there was nothing she could use to latch onto him anymore. "I...I don't..." Derek began to say, tears welling up in his eyes, voice catching in his throat.

"You don't get to decide that Derek. Neither does she. You do deserve me." Stiles said, he pulled Derek's hand toward him, placing them over his chest, the claws curled, a danger to him, only if Derek couldn't fight out of this. "You came back here because of me, you chose me to be your mate, but guess what Derek, I had to have chosen you back. So you do deserve me, you deserve to be happy, you deserve everything that Kate took away from you and more. I love you, I won't ever stop loving you. So, you can take that idea and send right to hell with her." Stiles said as he held Derek's hands firmly over his chest. "Now, tell me I'm lying, tell me I don't mean every word I just said." he added, challenging the former alpha.

Derek looked at him, trying to gauge Stiles' words, trying to listen, but his head wasn't working, but then, he could feel it, his hands were right on Stiles' chest, his breathing was steady, no hitches, nothing, heartbeat steady and resolute. He wasn't lying, far from it, he was being as absolutely honest as could be, and the truth of it was cutting clear through the haze Kate had tried to put him under, one that would leave him either yearning for more, or feeling so full of self-hatred that he'd damn himself. His claws retreated, even as his tears kept rolling down steadily before latching onto Stiles. The teen just held him tightly, one hand running through Derek's short hair, the other tenderly running along his back and shoulders.

Al and Cora looked on for a moment before looking back to one another, what neither Derek nor Stiles had noticed as they were holding onto one another as they were, was that another figure had entered the room, this one, much less threatening, indeed, he seemed perfectly at peace as he observed the pair. The antlered figure held a finger to his lips to Cora and Álmos before silently fading away again, the smell of woodlands wafting through, bringing a certain level of peace to the minds of the wolves gathered, even to the teen as he consoled and comforted his mate.

Cora made to ask her cousin what that was all about only to have the elder werewolf wave a hand to say he would later. The wonderful thing about non-verbal communication, it was even more popular with werewolves than humans.

. . . . .

With those events happening on the other side of town, the other households found themselves in similar, yet nowhere near as dire, situations. As the storm went on however things relaxed, what nasty things had presented a problem were soon enough chased out, and two more figures began finding themselves wandering about the town, even less pleased to be there than many of their fellows.

"Beira, I trust you have an explanation as to why both the Spring and Autumn courts are being made to muster within my time of dominion." one of the figures spoke up, the man looking far too old by any right. What hair he had was like cobwebs, his skin weathered more than worn leather, and he was hunched with what seemed to be the weight of more than just mere centuries.

"King Rowan, I cannot think for what reason you'd come to my daughter-in-law's residence, but you do not have the right to make any such intrusion or demands of another monarch. I can assure you I haven't the faintest as to why you or Spring have been called." Beira said, feeling rather at odds with the old figure now standing sternly before her.

"Then kindly explain this summons we received from the Summer Court, called to instruct a new High Priest in the natures of the void?" he inquired, extending a rolled up sheaf of parchment to the other. True to his word it was written in the hand of her own son, Jacques. "It is in your son's hand, what manner of trickery is this that it would be penned as an order of the Summer Court?" he inquired rather intently for someone of his age.

"That would be due to the fact that my dear husband has had to surrender his role of prince of the Winter Court, he now sits as the reigning Summer prince, it was not a decision he made lightly, and was due to a life or death risk. House...House Thorn has reared its head. Doyle is back." Neve said in place of the other monarch.

"Thorn...what in the name of Cernunnos is going on here?" the older man said, eyes wide despite the bags and wrinkles around them, jaw slack.

"A danger for all time." Neve stated, setting to work bringing the Autumn monarch up to date on what was going on, and sparing Beira any cause to speak up or defend her position against another fae court.

Likewise, within her own realm, Vivian was tending to speaking with the Spring Monarch, an arguably too young woman who barely looked to be in her teens, let alone the nearly thousand years she had been around.

"Vivian, I understand the urgency, but surely there must be an alternative, I mean, open war across the earth? Think of the devastation that could cause? You don't honestly think this would lead to anything less. Doyle is still a force to be reckoned with, and to resort to necromancy...I work with the living, I cannot sway the dead, that is the power of Autumn and Winter, what good could I possibly do?" she asked as she walked the corridors of the Summer Palace.

"That is precisely why we need your court Moina, we are not all of us the brash warriors or silent assassins. I trust that before all this madness is over we will be in dire need of the skills of Spring's healers. Not just for our own kind." she stated as she left more than enough hints to the last of the four monarchs.

"That's why you''re planning to wait until near all the harvests are done, that way my court can lay the groundwork while winter sees over the season of rest...that's brilliant sister." Moina said as she took the Summer queen's hand and continued down the hall.

"The missives are out to Rowan and Beira as well." Jacques said as he met up with his aunts continuing further down the corridor. "All four monarchs are clear to drop by the loft in order to help educate a Mr. Stiles Stilinski...Stiles?" he asked himself for a moment before shaking his head, mortals and their naming methods.

"Excellent, I have already taught him all I can, how to repel and direct, Beira must teach him how to confine, you dear sister must teach him the means to shape, and Rowan, to undo." Vivian said, her tone dimming at the last part of it.

"What worries you so much about that Vivian?" Jacques asked as they continued walking their way to a nearby portal.

"The man is a terrible teacher really, he falls asleep mid-sentence at times, and what's worse, is he has such a dreadful temper, let us hope Mr. Stilinski has the patience and decorum not to draw his ire." she replied before stepping through and back into the mortal world, quickly ascending the steps back into the loft and moving in just as those who had been left behind were returning to their respective beds. "I fear I've missed something..." she said, a guilty expression spreading out over her face as Al descended, looking at her as though he were a touch disappointed.

"A very vile creature came in your absence, a succubus, it very nearly drove Derek to his death, had Stiles not been here, had he not paid such close attention to your lessons today...we would all be dead." the werewolf in question replied. "I do hope, whatever it was you had to do, it was crucial enough to remove the protection of your grace." he added, holding her in his gaze a moment.

"I had to send word to the other monarchs that we had to instruct a new High Priest. I swore to Stiles he would learn all he needed this weekend, that leaves two days more, and you know first hand the trouble Rowan can be." she stated, earning an understanding nod from the wolf. "I do lament what you endured this night, am in your debt Mr. Smucz, you need by ask and I will provide to you whatever you ask." she stated, her tone serious.

"A grave apology indeed Queen Vivian, to lay yourself at the debt of a mortal. A fae does not do so without true remorse motivating it..." Al responded, "I will name my terms when matters are less dire, my mind cannot in good faith lay a claim to any debt until all are safe from the menace who has continued to bring us misfortune. Even then, I may surrender that debt to Derek, his was the life in danger, he should be the one you owe your debt to." he added, Vivian looking to him, and nodding her head.

"As you request, whatever it is that Mr. Hale seeks as restitution, such I will provide." she added before going off to a corner, settling in, and lashing out around her, clearing the space and any shred of malignant remnants.